Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

Ducks are an important symbol in Beaton’s memoir. They represent the blue-collar workers in the oil sands, including Katie herself. Like ducks and migratory birds, many of the oil sands workers are migrants, hailing from all over Canada and the world. Like birds who migrate over the seasons, migrant work, especially in the oil sands, has become traditional over the generations because it is the only way to earn a living. While people from the same hometown may not travel together, they flock together at their respective oil sands locations and look out for their own on-site, paving the way for future generations that are expected to join them. Outsiders are excluded, leading to occasional disputes between groups, much like flocks of birds protecting their territories.

Birds also suffer because of the oil industry. Katie observes that hundreds of migrating birds die (including many endangered species) because they land in oil industry tailing pools. The oil companies only provide superficial countermeasures like scarecrows and robotic gunshot sounds, both of which Katie doubts are effective. The oil sands mining and refining processes are toxic, both to the environment and the people. Katie mentions the high cancer rates in the surrounding First Nations communities and recounts sardonic comments regarding the new mining and refining methods that are “good for the environment” (148).